Thursday Pampered

 YES, I DESERVE TO BE PAMPERED!!!!!!!!!

As nurses we work hard every day.  We get up at an ungodly hour to get ready for a 12 hour shift, run around getting medications, doing dressing changes, helping with turns, getting baths done, helping with procedures, coordinating the unit, speaking with family, health teaching at the bedside and in the hallways on our way to grab a coffee or tea, running back to the unit to start all over again or running to a code Blue and getting an hours workout in 2 minutes of CPR, then when we have hopefully saved that persons life we continue on as if nothing happened and get back to our assignment so that we can chart, give more medications and try to clean up the patients room before our shift ends.  That is just scratching the surface on what we do on an everyday basis working on a unit.  It doesn't matter what unit you work on, each is different with unique qualities.  You could work in Labor and Delivery, psychiatry, the community, medicine, surgery, Emergency, ICU, CCU, the OR and so on.  Each field is unique unto itself.  When I tell people I'm a nurse, I don't say I'm a nurse.  I tell them I'm a Critical Care Nurse.  It tells people that I am proud of who I am and what I do.  Nurses have diversified and specialized so much in the last 15 years its amazing.  There are so many opportunities out there for everyone.

The hardest part about being a nurse is that many times people don't appreciate what we do or why we do what we do.  That is why we need to Pamper ourselves.  Give yourself permission to do something totally selfish for yourself today.  Just something small.  I know this may sound silly to some of you but my pampered joy for today is going to get new frying pans.  I know it's nothing special or crazy.  Just new frying pans so that I can cook healthy wonderful meals for myself and on occasion, for my husband when he lets me.  It may be that your pampered thought is a massage or a manicure, or it could be a bath in rose petals with a glass of Champaign.  What ever you decide its right for you.  Only you know what you need, you have to communicate that need to yourself and others.  No one can read your mind, so don't be afraid to ask for what you need.